Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Yeah, 10 Gts. a Copy. 1 

 Six Months, $2. 1 



NEW YORK, MAY 26, 1892. 



I VOL. XXXVTII.-No. 21. 

 I No. 318 Broadway, New Yobk. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



New Jersey Frozen Game. 

 Fisheries at the World's Fair. 

 Snap Shots. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



Bv the Colorado. 

 "Podgers's" Commentaries. 

 The R^nchito Hunt. 



Natural History. 



The Mongoose. 



South African Reptiles at 

 Home.— m. 



Game Bag and Gun. 



But I Got Him. 

 The Old-Tim** Gun. 

 Re^ound^ng Locks. 

 A Bark Camp 



The Art of Game Butchering. 

 The CoThin Game Park. 

 New York Game Protectors. 

 New York Association. 

 Camp- Fire Flickerings. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



Au Angler's Song. 

 Littleton Sportsmen. 

 Scuo in Oil Factories. 

 Maine Ma.v Trouting. 

 Fishes of Jamaica. 

 New Hampshire Waters. 

 Michigan Trout Streams. 

 Toledo Notes. 



Fishculture. 



Fisheries of the Pacific States. 

 Minnesota Protective Work. 



The Kennel. 



Lewiston Dog Show. 

 Retrieving at Field Trials. 

 The Beagle Standard. 

 "Wolf Coursing." 

 Worms. 



Points and Flushes. 

 A. K. C. Meeting. 

 Eastern Field Trial Derby En- 

 tries. 



Mercer Case and the C. E. C. 

 Flaps from the Beaver's Tail. 

 Dog Chat. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



Canoeing. 



Lake Huron and Georgian Bay 

 News Notes. 



Yachting. 



The Fisher Cup. 



Oswego and Lake Ontario. 



Niny. 



Measurement Rules. 

 News Notes. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



"Forest and Stream" Tourna- 

 ment. 



New Jersey Rifle Shooting. 

 Trap Shooting. 



Capital City Shoot. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 

 Matches and Meetings. 



Answers to Queries. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page 513. 



ROD AND GUN AND CAMERA. 



As A recognition of the important place of amateur photography 

 in its relation to sports of the field and prairie and mountain and 

 forest and stream, the Fob est and Stream offers a series of 

 prizss for meritorious work with the camera. The conditions 

 under whicn these prizes will he given are in brief as here set 

 forth: 



There will he ten prizes, as follow?: First $25. Second $20 

 Third $15. Fourth $10. Six of $5 each. 



The competition will be open to amateurs only. 

 I The subjects must relate to Fobest and Stream's field— game 

 and fish (alive or dead;, scooting and fishing, the camp, campers 

 and camp life, sportsman travel by land or water. 



There is no restriction as to the time when the pictures may 

 have been or may be made— whether in 1892 or in previous years. 



Pictures will be received up to Dec. 31, of this year. 



All work must be original; that is to say, it must not have been 

 submitted in any other competition, nor have been published. 

 1 There are no restrictions as to make or style of camera, nor as 

 to size of plate. 



A competitor need not be a subscriber of Forest and Stream. 



All photographs will be submitteed to a committee, shortly to 

 be announced. In making their awards the judges will be in- 

 structed to take int'i consideration the technical merits of the 

 work as a photograph, its artistic qualities; and other things 

 being equal, the unique an<l difficult nature of the subject. 



Photographs must be marked only with initials or a pseudonym 

 for identification. Wi<h each photograph should be given name 

 of sender, title of view, locality, date, and name of camera. 



The photographs shall be the property of the Forest and 

 Stbeam. This applies only to the particular prints fent us. 



Fmm time to time we shall reproduce by the half-tone process 

 samples of the work submitted, and should the interest in 

 Forest and Stream's Amateur Photography Collec' ion prove 

 to be what is anticipated, we may ask for an expression of opinion 

 by a vote of all our readers after the manner of the successful 

 and famous "Camp-Fire Flickering Vote." Such popular vote 

 will be quite distinct from the award by the committee. 



FISHERIES AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 



At a meeting of the State Board of "World's Fair Com- 

 missioners in San Francisco on April 26 Commissioners 

 Phelan, Daggett and McMurray were present. A mem- 

 orandum, which may be of vital importance to the suc- 

 cessful display of California's fishery resources, was 

 placed upon the minutes of the executive session; it is as 

 follows: 



The object of the fish exhibit is to show the edible or food fish- 

 of the California coast and inland waters. Cheap food makes 

 residence in a country desirable. President Jordan, of the Le- 

 land Stanford University, has expert knowledge and agrees to 

 make the collection with the assistance of Professor Gilbert and 

 his students, without any salaries being paid any ODe, and simply 

 the expenses of preservation jars, transportation and manual 

 labor being defrayed by the Commission. 



The preparation of the California fish exhibit up to the 

 time of the above meeting had been in charge of Alfred 

 V. La Motte, and doubtless one of the causes of the 

 change of direction was the publication of his wild statis- 

 tics in the California World's Fair Magazine for March, 

 :1892, wherein we are informed that 909,673 tons of fish 

 were sold in San Francisco markets, or more than eighty 

 times the quantity credited to the entire State in the 

 pfficial returns for 1888. 



That the fishes of California will be exhaustively col- 

 lected by President Jordan goes without saying, and we 

 believe that with his experience in the same region dur- 

 ing the canvas for the census of 1880 the statistical di- 

 vision of the work, which is most directly related to the 

 public welfare, will receive the attention which its im- 

 portance demands. 



At the meeting of the New York Fish Commissioners 

 last Tuesday a communication was read from Senator 

 Donald McNaughton, of the Board of General Managers 

 of the Exhibit of New York at the World's Fair, point- 

 ing out the desirability of a special fishery exhibit at 

 Cbicago, which should show not only the wealth of New 

 York in food fishes, but the processes af fishculture and 

 its progress in this State. It will be remembered that a 

 like request was received from the Fair Commissioners 

 some months ago. Commissioners Huntington and Bow- 

 man have been appointed a committee to consider the 

 plan, and as Governor Flower is known to be well dis- 

 posed toward the scheme, there is every reason for con- 

 fidence that the display may be made. The showing will 

 be one to illustrate the progress of fishculture not only in 

 New York but in large measure that of the world. 



NEW JERSEY FROZEN GAME. 



Constant violations of the game laws are reported to 

 occur in New Jersey in connection with the great cold 

 storage houses which have been established there within 

 the past few years. Similar abuses were at one time 

 common in this city, but the business here was broken 

 up. 



At the time when Mr. Charles E. Whitehead was 

 counsel for the New York Society for the Protection of 

 Fish and Game, laws were passed in this State which 

 authorized game protectors, on obtaining search warrants, 

 to break open these storage warehouses and look for 

 frozen game at seasons when its possession was illegal. 

 Under the earnest leadership of Mr. Whitehead a number 

 of storage warehouse proprietors were convicted of hav- 

 ing game in possession at unlawful times, and were fined 

 sums so considerable that the open sale of illegal frozen 

 game was given up. Soon after this, a number of these 

 warehouse proprietors gave up business in New York 

 city, but re-established their cold storage houses across 

 the river in Jersey City, where they are still in oper- 

 ation. 



One of the most profitable forms which this business 

 takes is the supplying of ocean steamships with game. 

 It is stated the warehouse people box up the frozen game 

 and deliver it to the ships on the North German Lloyd 

 line and also of the Hamburg-American Packet Com- 

 pany, supplying them with quantities large enough not 

 only for their outward but also for their return voyage. 

 They are reported also to make a practice of supplying 

 such game to ocean steamships which sail from piers in 

 this city, and as they deliver their wares in closed boxes 

 it is not easy to put an end to the traffic. It can readily 

 be understood that the amount of game disposed of in 

 this way is enormous in tbe course of a year. 



The laws of New Jersey with regard to fish and game 

 are in some respects peculiar, but their apparent intent 

 is to forbid the possession of game after ten days beyond 

 the expiration of the open season, and we have no doubt 

 that if an earnest effort were made by the authorities of 

 that State and those interested in game protection a stop 

 could be put to this traffic. Remonstrances with the 

 steamship companies can accomplish little. These cor- 

 porations say that they must have game to supply to their 

 passengers, and very truly allege that this is the cheap- 

 est way that they can get it. 



It is believed that the game markets of this city, after 

 having been glutted throughout the open season, send 

 over to New Jersey whatever game they have left on 

 hand at the close of the open season, and either sell it to 

 the warehouses or have it sold for them. 



Of course it is an open secret that the game laws in 

 this city are violated throughout the winter. Prairie 

 chickens, ruffed grouse and other birds are sold under 

 the name of ptarmigan, though frequently there is not a 

 ptarmigan in market during the whole winter, while 

 "antelope" regularly appears on the restaurant bills of 

 fare to represent what is really venison. 



While we may congratulate ourselves on the fact that 

 the interest felt in game protection is greater now than 

 it was a few years ago, it is still discouraging to notice 

 the frequency with which the game laws are disregarded. 



SPITTING SNAKES. 

 In Volume XIV. of the Proceedings of the United States 

 National Museum, pages 539 694, Professor E. D. Cope 

 publishes a paper entitled "A Critical Review of the 

 Characters and Variations of the Snakes of North 

 A.merica." In this paper it is attempted to define with 

 precision the species of North American snakes, together 

 with their varieties, and in preparing it advantage has 

 been taken of the large collection of snakes in the United 

 States National Museum, as well as those in other col- 

 lections. The paper is entirely technical, yet some state- 

 ments are made with regard to the habits of certain spe- 

 cies, and to one of these statements we wish to call 

 attention. 



In his remarks on the genus Crotalus, Professor Cope 

 speaks of the biting habits of the rattlesnake, using the 

 following language: "Species of this genus are of rather 

 sluggish movements and are not quick to bite unless 

 trodden on. They throw their body into a coil and 

 sound the rattle, giving a sigmoid flexure of the anterior 

 part of the body on which the head is poised. They open 

 their mouths ready for action. At this time drops of the 

 poisonous saliva fall from the fangs and by a violent 

 expulsion of air from the lungs are thrown on their 

 enemy." Thi3 statement will appear to many readers as 

 it does to us, very extraordinary, and is quite opposed to 

 the idea which commonly prevails with regard to the 

 "spitting" of snakes by which is meant the ejection of 

 the venom where the teeth are not brought in play. It 

 is commonly believed that the contraction of the muscles 

 about the poison sack causes the fluid to be thrown out 

 through the canal in the poison fang, and it is quite cer- 

 tain that the "spitting," where it takes place, usually 

 accompanies an effort to bite. Further information on 

 this subject is greatly to be desired, and we should be 

 glad to know on what observations Professor Cope's 

 statements are based. 



It is well known that with certain species of snakes this 

 act of "spitting" is not very uncommon. The na jas of South 

 Africa are especially famed for this act and it is a com- 

 mon belief that these snakes endeavor to throw their 

 venom into the eye of the person toward whom it is 

 directed. These common beliefs, however, do not go for . 

 much in science unless they are confirmed by the observ- 

 ations of trained students. The old story of the hoop 

 snake once received general credence. It used to be 

 thought that the porcupine darted his quills at his enemies, 

 and so with many old beliefs. 



Rattlesnakes are not now as common as they used to 

 be twenty years ago, yet among our readers there must 

 be many who are familiar with snakes of this class, and 

 it is to be hoped that some of them may be in a position 

 to contribute some evidence on the point in question. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 It appears that there are some people in California 

 who think that it would be a wise and sensible thing to 

 introduce a new species of vermin into this country. 

 They are plagued with gophers, and they propose to bring 

 in the mongoose to war on the gopher. Sufficient is 

 known of this species to warrant the conviction that its 

 introduction into America would be criminally foolish. 

 The mongoose preys on rats and mice and snakes and 

 lizards, and insects, but it devours also such birds as it 

 can capture, and feeds greedily on the eggs of quail and 

 other ground -nesting birds. 1 Such habits are in them- 

 selves sufficient to prove the case against the creature; 

 but added to them is the uncertainty as to what will be 

 the increase of any wild species in new surroundings. 

 Until the story of the rabbits and foxes in Australia, 

 mongoose in Jamaica, and English sparrows in America 

 shall have been forgotten, common sense will forbid the 

 hazardous experiment of adding the mongoose to the 

 vermin supply of the Pacific Coast. 



We shall have a full report of the meeting of the 

 American Fisheries Society held in this city May 25-26. 

 The attendance and manifested interest are notable and 

 speak with much promise for the Society and for the im- 

 portant field of its activity. With this year the Society 

 has attained its majority, and gives every evidence of 

 vigor and strength. 



The discovery which Mr. William Johnson reports f rpm 

 Woodland, Kansas, of the fossil remains of a prehistoric 

 deer loft, high, points the moral that the ambitious 

 Kansas deer slayer of today is living a few aeons too late; 

 and is thus missing a splendid opportunity for "tall talk.'* 



